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Houston DIY Home Theater Group?

67K views 289 replies 36 participants last post by  AudiocRaver 
#1 ·
I have an idea.

It seems there are quite a few DIYers on this site from the Houston area. I wonder if there would be enough interest to start a Houston DIY Speaker / Home Theater Group. What I'm thinking about is a quarterly or monthly meeting at members' homes around the area to screen a recent DVD release on their HT, demonstrations of different DIY speakers and subwoofers, and talks about designing and building techniques. I guess it would be like an extension of the HTS message board, only we'd get to see and hear what everyone is talking about.

Just with the number of Houston guys I see posting here, we would have enough to get started. I could also see a lot of cross interest being generated in the woodworking-enthusiast community. The local activities would then feed back into HTS board discussions.

So, what do you think? Meeting frequency, topics, venues, etc...
 
#161 ·
Welcome aboard, JohnGalt. The Houston Home Theater DIY group has been meeting for about a year. We have members all over the Houston area. Many have built, are building, or are thinking about building a home theater. That may include projection screens, DIY speakers and subs, HT rooms, electronics mods and other ideas. We are open to suggestions for meeting topics and locations. Browse around the thread, and see what you might like to see and hear. Again, glad to have you!
 
#163 ·
Sonotube

Hey Guys, I'm in the process of finishing up my new subwoofer, and I need to get rid of my old sonotube enclosure. I really don't want to just chunk it, so I was hoping one of you local houston guys would be interested. It is 300L and tune to around 16hz, adn will practically buckle your wall studs. I currently have a tempest-x in it that I will use in my new sealed box. The end cap are piano black, and its covered in black carpet. If you want it, come and get it.
 
#168 ·
Glad to have you here, David. We're growing all the time. As I wrote to JohnGalt above, we're open to any ideas and request you may have for future events. Feel free to throw out your ideas on this forum, or PM me directly if you prefer. See you around the Shack!
 
#172 ·
It is sorry, but true... I have no bass at the moment. :crying: However, if Jim wants to try out his RL-p15 in the sonotube for a while first, I could pick it up later. As per my previous post, my busy schedule has kept me from finishing off my over-due Nat P Wave mains and starting my sub project. I hope to finish off the Waves sometime this month. After that, I could host an event at my home.

Jim, what do you think of that arrangement?
 
#171 ·
I've got a couple of ideas for a get together...

With Halloween coming up very shortly, how about a get together for a scary movie? I just picked up "The Orphanage" on BR, a scary movie which I highly recommend to everyone.

Another idea, is to watch Casino Royale before Quantum of Solace comes out. Since this is the first Bond movie to pick up right where the previous one left off, I figured I would do a little catching up before I see the new one.

I'll gladly offer up my place, but I can really only seat about 5-6 comfortably. My place is pretty small...

Anyone with a bit more space willing to host an event?
Both are great ideas! I'll be out of town quite a bit this month (this weekend, 8-12, 15-16, 27-30), but I'm up for either or both if the schedule permits -- we've never tried a weekday, or I might just have to miss it. By a virtual show of hands, how many HHT-DIY members would like to do A) Scary Movie, B) 007 - Quantum of Solace?
 
#175 ·

For all of you came out to the DIY cable meet we hosted last year - and those who couldn't make it (Jim?) - who are still interested in making your own cables, I've finally got a How to Solder article up (with a few additional installments yet to come). It's been over a year and a half in the making with a cast of thousands (of pictures, that is). Wade through the whole thing and you too will be a DIY cabling expert!

I started putting up the posts only a month ago, and already it's had over 500 hits and is #2 on a Google search for "solder diy cables," and on pages 1 or 2 for most other searches that include combinations of words like "solder,"cable," "how to," "DIY," etc. This should help bring a lot of new traffic to the Shack!

Regards,
Wayne
 
#176 ·
I went to Mike Cason's home this weekend to hear his speakers. They were amazing! The cut we watched from The Haunting was house shaking! The clarity and lack of distortion was really something.

Years ago I heard some Wilson Grand Slamms driven by big Krell amps and, at $60,000 a pair, didn't have sonically what Mike's speakers have.
 
#177 ·
Wow! i leave you guys alone for a while and look what happens. glad everyone made it past ike ok. Sorry i missed the last meet, mikes speakers look awsome. looks like my little sub has been outdone. i'll be checking back more often and would like to go to the next one. I replaced my projector with an epson 1080ub and reintroduced my svs and hsu to my system. (you can never have enough bass.) and changed out the onkyo with a denon 3808ci.
 
#178 · (Edited)
Wow...Mr. John Galt; what a nice review! :T Thank you for the very kind words!!

Ya wanna come back.....I just added some more horsepower under the hood.....:hsd:

I loved my old Rotel RSX 1065 we used during our Houston DIY group meeting but I replaced it with the Next Generation NAD T-785 receiver. After days of tweaking I still didn't have the soundstage I had with the Rotel 100 wpc X 5 channel. Sonnie helped me with my tweaking and it improved some, but the Rotel drives my speakers better than the NAD. The two Panamax 5100s I bought from Sonnnie since the DIY meeting are in the middle of the cabinet.

Now I'm just using the awesome NAD's processor/preamp to drive my new Rotel RMB 1095 "200 wpc" X 5 channel amp that I installed Friday night. (I bought my wife some very nice flowers!) The NAD is providing plenty of horsepower for my center backs and I've got reserve HP from the Rotel for the rest of the system.

My mains have really opened up and the soundstage is awesome. Rotel must have made some major improvements to their amps since my RSX was built. The entire audio spectrum is spectacular. The surrounds and center backs scare me at times! The bass, midrange, and highs are better than I ever expected. For some unknown reason, I'm getting better subwoofer output and control too.

Add to that, the newest modification of my center speaker with my completely re-designed crossover I finished and installed on 10-10-08 and now I'm really in audio heaven.

I've included a pic and the space left in the cabinet is for my BluRay when the right one comes out in the first quarter. I've already been eyeballing a couple....:nerd: I'll make those wires go away with the velcrow attached cloth already on the back of the stand and hope to finish the grill covers soon.

Congratulations on your cabling and website work Wayne! Now I can say I know someone real famous!!! :jump:

Thanks,
Mike
 

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#180 ·
I wish the group the best for the new year as well.

I sincerely hope none of our fellows have lost their jobs with the resession going on.

Tony, I agree with you....we need to have some more get togethers. I think there is a pair of Natalie Ps being finished up and hopefully others have some projects to share soon.

I started Xmas day and finished the 4 day grill recovering project Sunday, so I'm finally done. (That's what I've been saying for 6 years). I have Sonnie's Lazy Boy recliners in the living room now. We can usually open up the doors again for a couple of hours anytime here for those that missed the meeting......:yay2:

The best of 2009 to all!

Mike
 

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#185 ·
How are all of my Houston HT friends these days? I've been up to my eyeball in regular work, and in preparing for Army deployment in a few months. We should start thinking about new topics, potential hosts and a few possible dates. Remember, we can do:

1) Speaker auditions,
2) Build demonstrations,
3) Video tuning tutorial,
4) New Blu-Ray screening,
5) any other ideas you might have.

So, throw some ideas up on the wall and see what sticks!
 
#186 ·
Hey Mark,

Good to know you're still home to spend some time with your new little one. Hope all is good on your end.

I'd like to see some tuning / calibration instruction. I know you were building some speaker boxes; did you complete them? If not, covering the build and assembly would be interesting.

Or, we could get some double hearing protection, BluRay copy of Transformers, and head on over to Mike's for a viewing...:yes: His system is worth a second viewing.

I'm up for anything, hit me up when you get a date in mind.

Tony
 
#188 ·
Hey Mark,


Or, we could get some double hearing protection, BluRay copy of Transformers, and head on over to Mike's for a viewing...:yes: His system is worth a second viewing.


Tony
Tony,

I rebuilt the center speaker's crossover a couple of weeks after our viewing. You commented about how well it sounded before and the new crossover has really improved it. I changed the crossover points and changed the tweeter's section to a 3rd order from the 2nd order that I had with my previous crossover. It really shines now!

I've also bought the next generation T-785 NAD receiver and beefed up the output power with a new Rotel THX RMB 1095 5 x 200 watt amplifier. The system really rocks now! :hsd:

I'm always open for you guys to come over. It's a treat to have ya! :yay2:

I'm now a distributor for the Audience A3 full range driver and other products and have been working on a cabinet design. These 3" drivers have the new XBL2 technology and are full range from 40 hz to 2200 hz and down to 20 hz @ -20. About all I could do is display the drivers at the meet until I get a perfected cabinet. I've got one built, but am tweaking it. There are no crossovers needed.

I've also got Audience's Illuminator disk treatment we could apply to a DVD to show how this product improves the sound of all optical disks. I haven't had the time to treat a disk yet, so that would be a good demo. Refer to my website to read more about it.

Let me know....:T

Mike
 
#187 ·
I'm working on the Nat P Waves this weekend. I applied the final curved wall to the first speaker and began to bondo-up the gaps. Hopefully, the second speaker will get sealed up and maybe completely prepped for whatever finish they'll ultimately get. I'd like to have a finished product before showing them off.

We still have Jim's IB vs ported sub demo option, our recent addition David had some good ideas, or week could head back down to Mike's place. Maybe if I get a ton done this weekend, I could consider hosting in a couple weeks.

Any more ideas?
 
#190 ·
Wow, time has really gotten away from me. Between my hospital duties and preparing for a deployment to the middle east, things are pretty hectic. I'm stealing minutes here and there to finish off the Nat P Waves, but oranizing the HHT-DIY meetings is proving to be too much (at least for now). Maybe if Mike is willing to host the next meet, he could organize it as well? Or if someone else is interested, that would work too. So, what do you guys think?
 
#191 ·
If you guys want to come next weekend, let me know. I'll keep my slate clean. Jim or someone will need to bring his BluRay player and demo material as I'm still holding out waiting on the lastest tech & pricing....I've still got all my other demo stuff and DVD player; just not BluRay.

I might have a new pair of 4 driver Audience A3 cabinets finished by then to demo out as well. I'm not going to hit ya up for a sales pitch. I've always wanted to hear a quality small driver line array speaker that sounded good.

I need to know soon so I can get prepared and get myself back on the DIY Googlemap for you. I don't want to schedule any work either as I do work on weekends when necessary.

Mike
 
#192 ·
Re: Is the Houston DIY Group dead?

Knock, Knock,.....anyone here?

It's sure been quiet for our Houston group.

Does anyone have any ideas for another meeting?

Jim, I've purchased that new BluRay player that I knew would come along finally. It's the OPPO BDP-83 Blu-ray Player. Firmware upgrades are as easy as the internet connection or USB. It plays everything and is cheap enough at $499. I have mine on order from the factory which sells them at the same price as the Amazon bunch. The reviews are awesome. Only downside is you can't order Netflix, at least just yet. A firmware in the future may fix this.
http://www.blu-ray.com/players/players.php?p=1&id=105

Once I received and tested this one out, I'll let you know and if any of you guys want to come over and check it out, I'm open to having another meet here, even if only a couple of you want to come over.

I also have completed my pair of 4 driver Audience A3 speakers those interested in hearing a small line array full range, crossover free speaker.

If anyone else has a suggestion, let's hear it. Wayne, I think you had your IB sub finished?

Mike
 

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#199 ·
Re: Is the Houston DIY Group dead?

If anyone else has a suggestion, let's hear it. Wayne, I think you had your IB sub finished?
It’s not an IB, it just utilizes an IB-styled manifold in a built-in cabinet that was in my living room. It was never intended to be a high-performance design, just something that would aesthetically integrate into the room and hopefully perform as well as many off-the-shelf subs. Still, if anyone is interested in looking at what can be done with built-in cabinetry, I’d be game to host an event. Might be another couple of months, though, as I have yet to finish the grille and the electronics need some mods and further tweaking. It was surprisingly cheap, since the cabinet was “free” and I already had the drivers and amplifier.

Does anyone have any ideas for another meeting?
I want to see Flash Jim’s IB! Jim, you’ve had plenty of time to finish remodeling that bathroom! Hee hee...

Mike, Those new speakers of yours sound pretty intriguing...

Regards,
Wayne
 
#193 ·
I have the Oppo Blu Ray. Its ******* awesome. I have a PS3 also, and it smokes it picture wise. The blu ray is great, but the up conversion on standard dvds is absolutely amazing. I also did an AB over at a local high end shop mt buddy works at with a $20K mitner cd player, and it wasn't embarrassing. Really just a great player.
 
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